Yesterday IWW’s who are members of HUCTW (the Harvard Union of Clerical & Technical Workers) helped organize an action at the world’s richest University’s Commencement Exercises. The Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM) helped us build for the event, and mobilized their members to turn out. SLAM has been fiercely defending campus workers for many years.

Northeastern University Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has announced that the University is backing off of its decision to suspend the student organization until January 2015. “This is a victory for freedom of expression on campus,” said SJP leader Tori Porell who thanked SJP supporters. “Weeks of protests, picket lines, petitions, phone calls, and emails appear to have paid off and SJP will be operational next semester,” Porell said. “This is also a victory for the national student movement for justice in Palestine.”

Boston, MA - Tuesday night, over 150 students and local activists protested at Northeastern University with a strong message to the administration: Don't silence Students for Justice in Palestine and applaud the Israeli Knesset. The protest was sponsored by a coalition of 20 Boston-area organizations, and took place outside of a university-sponsored "town hall" meeting with six members of the Israeli Knesset. The rally followed a talk by author and activist Ali Abunimah, co-founder and director of the publication The Electronic Intifada.

Boston, MA- Over 200 protesters from a coalition of 30 student, labor, faith, feminist, LGBTQ, environmentalist, peace, and social justice groups rallied at Northeastern University to oppose the administration's suspension of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

Late last month Open Media Boston posted an article titled Antiviolence Activists Join City Officials To Launch MBTA-Wide Ad Campaign. The campaign in question was for Operation LIPSTICK, aka Ladies Involved In Putting a Stop to Inner-City Killings, an organization that is attempting to reduce shootings in neighborhoods of color by convincing women to stop buying guns for felons (who are legally barred from owning firearms). LIPSTICK is an offshoot of a nonprofit group called Citizens for Safety, who describe themselves as "a community coalition working to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and youths without abridging the freedoms of law-abiding Americans." The OMB article is essentially a puff piece. The author, Dave Goodman, expresses some skepticism about the efficacy of the MBTA ad campaign, but none about LIPSTICK or their mission, even claiming that "it’s extremely difficult to question the motivations behind the campaign."

Unfortunately, it's actually pretty easy. Even a cursory look at LIPSTICK's strategy and methods reveals a deeply problematic organization that is likely doing far more harm than good. To see why, read on.

With profound disappointment and righteous indignation Northeastern University Students for Justice in Palestine announces it has been suspended as an organization. SJP is disappointed because Northeastern’s claims of creating a diverse learning environment that encourages the free exchange of ideas and promotes Academic Freedom are impossible to reconcile with the university’s decision to suppress our speech and suspend our political group. As if banning our activities from campus and denying us all use of campus resources wasn’t outrageous enough, the university is pursuing expulsion-level sanctions for two students—all for participation in a mock eviction action. SJP is furious to report the only individuals to face our school’s opaque disciplinary process are two young women of color; none of the white or male participants have faced any charges. This unprecedented ban and appalling prosecutions are the latest attempt by the university to suppress pro-Palestine speech, and continues the university’s disturbing history of enacting injustice.